Ignore the mental red flags that go up when you hear the words "produced by Lorne Michaels." Yes, it sometimes seems that the "Saturday Night Live" honcho's name has been attached to more turkeys than Butterball, but just this once, forget about the 1993 "Coneheads" movie, and forget about 1998's "Night at the Roxbury" and -- if you haven't already -- definitely forget about 2000's "The Ladies Man."

When it comes to "Baby Mama, " the newest Michaels-produced project, no such pregnant pause is necessary.

The first hint that the comedy, about a career woman who selects a trashy surrogate to carry her baby, is going to be better than his previous stuff is that it's not based on a character from an "SNL" skit.

Secondly, and probably even more importantly: It stars Tina Fey, who, as the creative force behind the "SNL"-inspired sitcom "30 Rock, " has proven herself to be one of the smartest and funniest talents on network TV.

Tina Fey

BABY MAMA

2.5 stars, out of 4

Plot: A single career woman turns to an unlikely surrogate to carry her child.

Fey built a name for herself as a head writer on "Saturday Night Live." But rather than create an arsenal of oddball characters for herself -- the kind of characters that get made into Michaels' lamer movies -- she became better known for hosting the weekly "SNL Weekend Update" fake-news segment.

Her co-anchor was "Baby Mama" co-star Amy Poehler.

Here, just as back then, the two funny ladies are an appealing pair, with Fey's wry, deadpan delivery a perfect complement to Poehler's fearlessly juvenile brand of humor.

Think of them as an estrogen-heavy Abbot and Costello.

In "Baby Mama, " Fey plays Kate, a career-minded vice president for a Whole Foods-style grocery chain, the kind of person whose home is furnished with things like a recovered-barn-wood coffee table.

Poehler plays Angie, a blue-collar Philadelphia filly who disposes of her used chewing gum by sticking it on the underside of said table. She's also the woman whom Fey's uterine-challenged character hires to become her child's surrogate mother.

What follows is a comedy built upon the culture clash that results when Angie, fresh off a breakup from her beau (Dax Shepard), moves on up -- and into Kate's apartment.

It's fairly fertile comic ground, as Fey and Poehler prove, though most of the film's really good jokes will also be old jokes for anyone who has seen its trailer.

What really separates it from other Michaels-produced films, however, is its heart -- "Baby Mama" is a borderline romantic comedy (love interest: Greg Kinnear) -- even if all that baby-mama drama, to say nothing of the plot's gross predictability, at times derails any comedic momentum.

But Fey and Poehler rescue the film from being a solidly mediocre one, and there are a number of supporting performances -- most notably from Steve Martin as a ponytailed, New-Age entrepreneur and Sigourney Weaver as a troublingly fertile entrepreneur -- that also elevate the script.

Separately, Martin, Weaver, Fey, Poehler and Kinnear are all talented actors. Teamed up in "Baby Mama, " however, they're a satisfying, if modest, bundle of joy.